Follower of Sir Anthony Van Dyck

This painting is a detail taken from from Sir Anthony Van Dyck's Portrait of the Five Eldest Children of King Charles I, preserved in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle.¹ It depicts portraits of Princess Elizabeth (1635–1650) and Princess Anne (1637–1640), the daughters of Charles I and Queen Henrietta Maria. Although both girls died young, Elizabeth lived to see the disastrous unfolding events of the English Civil War. This included the tragic execution of her father in 1649, an account of which she had written before her untimely passing. An oil sketch by Van Dyck of Princesses Elizabeth and Anne is preserved in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.² Another version of the two children, described as a copy, is recorded in the collection of Highclere Castle, Hampshire.

¹ O. Millar in Van Dyck: A Complete Catalogue of Paintings, S.J. Barnes, N. De Poorter, O. Millar and H. Vey (eds), Newhaven and London 2004, p. 479–80, no. IV.62, reproduced.

² Millar in Barnes, De Poorter, Millar and Vey 2004, p. 481, no. IV.63, reproduced.